In The Spirit of Intellectual Evolution
by Bratty
Summary: “Since when do you care how well I do in school, anyway?” She batted at the stick. He kept poking.


Over the time spent with Neuro, learning to deal with unexpected things of every kind became something of a second nature for Yako, to the point where she could almost go an entire day without being surprised and/or horrified by him.

Said "almost", she suspected, was a good as it was going to get, because if there was something she could always trust Neuro with, it was with finding a way to make her stare – and she was doing a good deal of that right then, when after opening the office door, she found herself at the door of the classroom she exited not half an hour ago.

She felt her eye twitch. Yes, that was indeed her classroom, from the crack on the garbage-can's lid, to the collection of used gums she had amassed under her own desk, there was no doubt she had somehow managed to walk back to school, even when she was pretty sure she had crossed the entire town. _Twitch_.

"Neu--!"

Before she could finish, a hand shot down from the ceiling and grabbed her by the face, followed by a merry "You are late!"

She wasn't, really, but at the moment Yako was too preoccupied trying to get him to loosen his grip on her face to even pretend to argue with him. Her "Let me down!" came out more like an interesting collection of mumbles, but he did let her down. On her desk. Headfirst. "_Ow_."

"So!"

Yako raised her pained face to see Neuro standing against the teacher's desk, arms crossed, wearing a suit she couldn't remember seeing him in before: black slacks, black shirt, black tie, and what she suspected were entirely useless black-rimmed glasses. "Um." And again with the staring.

"You are late, miss Katsuragi." He chided, tapping a long wooden stick against his shoulder, in a patient manner. At the end of the stick, a tiny wooden hand made his favorite gesture towards the world. All in all, the perfect image of a young teacher looking down at a continuously-problematic student.

"No I'm not, I got out of school half an hour ago." She protested, sitting straight in her seat and glaring. "Or at least I meant to. Neuro, what the hell is this. Where is the office?"

"Even you should be able to solve that." the tapping continued.

Yako blinked. "If the classroom is where the office should be…" and then she groaned, looking around in dismay. "You stole my entire classroom!?"

"Temporarily borrowed it." He corrected, looking bored. "I even lent them the office, while I used it. It will be returned, once we are done."

She was looking out of the windows, looking for what, she wasn't sure. "Once we're done with what?" then she turned around. "And where's Akane?"

Neuro stared, blankly. Yako felt like screaming. "She's a corpse! You sent a walled corpse to my school!" and then started for the door before choking, for a black-gloved hand held her by the neck.

"Oh no." He said, in his most scolding tone, throwing her back again on her desk. "You are staying right where you are."

Now she was getting angry. "What--!" she froze midway-up from the floor when she found herself staring at the middle of the shiny, small, wooden hand of his stick. "Ah."

"I see you still don't quite understand the situation you are in, Miss Katsuragi." He said, all condescendence while shaking his head. She opened her mouth again and shut it immediately. Good, she was learning. "Do you know what date it today?" She told him. "And what have you done about it?"

Now he was being confusing. "About it being Saturday?"

He glared. "About it being one day away before finals start."

"Oh." She said, smartly. And then paled. "Oh, _hell_."

"Language!" He barked, poking her forehead with the offending finger of his stick. He was obviously enjoying himself.

"Yes, fine." Yako sighed, straightening herself up, while he kept poking at her face. "Since when do you care how well I do in school, anyway?" She batted at the stick. He kept poking.

"I am not." He said, smirking in an entirely too evil way. This was the Neuro she knew. "But your mother does. The school called her, worried about one Miss Katsuragi's rather low grades and how she needed to fix them or she would be expelled."

Yako was getting an idea of the situation. She paled. "Ah. And I guess she then—"

"--Called _me_, to ask _you_ to close the detective agency for a week." He crossed his arms and smiled widely. Oh, he was annoyed, alright.

"That explains it." She rubbed at her abused face, frowning. "But this isn't really your style." She said, waving around. It really wasn't: Neuro was a sadist, and a situation that put her under pressure from someone besides him was one he wouldn't let pass. Last time something like this had happened he had only made it worse. And now he was going to help?

The tiny finger went inside her nose. "Rest assured, I would rather prefer feed mental-steroids to your teachers and force a change in schedule and have all tests in one day. Perhaps with a punishment for the one with the lowest grades!" he smiled wickedly at the idea. "But your mother did mention that, were you to do badly on your tests, she would have to make you 'close' the agency." And the finger went deeper still.

"_OW_—" She drew her head back, keeping the offending stick away by sheer force. "—Okay, I get it! I get it! But if this is an emergency, shouldn't we use the Evil Ampou—wait no." suddenly, she remembered the 10 days of hell-fevers her teachers suffered trough, after their exposition to the thing.

His smile widened. "It is what I consider 'Plan B': in case you are indeed stupid enough not to learn even when one such as I is teaching you."

Yako tensed at that. Neuro was very obviously enjoying himself, and was considering this as a new, exciting way of torturing her. _Ten days of hell-fever, or Neuro intent on teaching me_. She was wondering what option seemed less painful when Neuro took her by the head, threw her to her seat, and set her on fire. "WHAT--!" but as soon as it appeared, the fire was gone, leaving her in a different uniform: white shirt, plaid skirt and tie. Even her shoes matched.

She looked up at him, slightly horrified. He smiled into the air. "You need to get in the mood."

"I already had a school uniform on!"

He ignored that. Before she knew it, she was surrounded by piles of books, pens and notebooks.

Neuro was smiling, wooden stick between his teeth as he gathered his hair in a small, blonde ponytail. Once done, he stood in front of her desk, and slapped the stick against one hand as he said. "Class time."


End file.
